- Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
1. Two Gulfport students selected for U.S. Senate Youth Program
Two Gulfport high school students – Shayleen Moeini and Jackson Pearce – have been selected to represent Mississippi at the 63rd annual United States Senate Youth Program Washington Week.
The Mississippi State Department of Education selected the Mississippi delegates and alternates from students nominated by teachers and principals. The chief state school officer for each jurisdiction confirms the final selection. Each will receive a $10,000 college scholarship.
U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith congratulated the students on Tuesday.
“I congratulate Shayleen and Jackson for being selected to be part of this competitive program,” Senator Wicker said. “They deserve this opportunity. Both students have demonstrated commitment to community service, extracurricular activities, and their studies. I have no doubt they will represent our state well.”
“I offer my most sincere congratulations to Shayleen and Jackson for being selected to represent Mississippi as part of this prestigious program. Their hard work, dedication to academics, student government involvement, and community service have truly set them apart. I am confident they will represent our state with distinction, and I look forward to meeting them,” Senator Hyde-Smith said.
2. Dotson named new State Epidemiologist
The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) announced Tuesday that Dr. Renia Dotson has been appointed as the new State Epidemiologist.
As Director of the Center for Public Health Transformation, Dotson was already responsible for all clinical and field services throughout the state. Before coming to MSDH in 2024, she practiced as a colon and rectal surgeon for 23 years, mainly at Delta Regional Medical Center, where she demonstrated clinical and administrative leadership as chief of staff, chief of surgery, and regional and institutional medical director of trauma.
Dotson is a native of Monroeville, Alabama. She earned a BS in Biology from the University of the South and MD from the University of South Alabama. She completed her surgery residency at Boston University Surgical Residency and fellowship at the Colon and Rectal Clinic at the University of Texas Medical Center. She also earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) and MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Rubio, Bondi among confirmation hearings for Wednesday
Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi are among President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees to be vetted at confirmation hearings on Wednesday.
As The Hill reports, “The Senate’s fight to confirm President-elect Trump’s Cabinet accelerates Wednesday, as more than half a dozen nominees head into their confirmation hearings.”
Rubio is up for Secretary of State while Bondi is set to be Attorney General.
“Trump and his allies are working to get the incoming president’s team solidified as his Jan. 20 inauguration nears. With a 53-seat majority in the Senate, Republicans are optimistic about clearing the nominees, but even a small handful of party holdouts could pose hurdles,” The Hill reported.
2. Biden to give farewell address Wednesday night
President Joe Biden plans to deliver a prime-time farewell address to the nation on Wednesday, reports the New York Times, “putting a capstone on his five-decade political career just days before he leaves an office he has long revered and is leaving only reluctantly.”
“The White House would not disclose what Mr. Biden plans to say in his speech, set for 8 p.m. Eastern,” NYT reported. “But in his final months he has been seeking to cement a legacy as a transformative president that stabilized domestic politics while bolstering America’s leadership abroad, one who ushered the nation out of a pandemic, made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy, and worked to strengthen democratic institutions both nationally and globally.”
NYT went on to note, “The farewell address, a tradition that dates back to George Washington, is one of a series of speeches Mr. Biden is giving in his last days in office.”
Sports & Entertainment
1. U.S. House passes bill to restrict men in women’s sports
The U.S. House passed a bill Tuesday that restricts transgender students – men – from playing on women’s sports teams. The vote in the chamber was 218-206, as two Democrats joined Republicans with one voting present.
As Politico reports, “The legislation — H.R. 28 — is a cornerstone of the GOP’s education agenda and would deliver on a priority for the incoming Trump administration. It bans transgender women from competing on teams consistent with their gender identity and amends Title IX, the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination, to define sex as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
While Democrats claimed the bill was discriminatory, “House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) took a victory lap after the bill’s passage at a press conference with lawmakers, including Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) and Mary Miller (R-Ill.), and Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum,” Politico reported.
2. Ole Miss takes down Bama in road win
Ole Miss Athletics is celebrating a milestone road win for its No. 21 men’s basketball team. The Rebels (15-2, 4-0 SEC) remain unbeaten in SEC play after taking down No. 4 Alabama (14-3, 3-1 SEC) 74-64 on Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa.
Five Rebels scored in double-figures for the second consecutive game led by Malik Dia with 23 points and 19 rebounds.
Ole Miss will stay on the road and return to action this Saturday as the Rebels take on in-state rival No. 15 Mississippi State (14-3, 2-2 SEC). Tip is set for 5 p.m. in Starkville.
Markets & Business
1. Tech, social media CEOs to attend Trump inauguration
Tech giants Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos will attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to a source familiar with planning for the event as reported by Reuters.
“The chief executives of Tesla, Amazon and Meta will be featured prominently at Trump’s swearing in, sitting with the Republican’s Cabinet nominees and other elected officials, according to NBC News, which first reported their attendance,” Reuters noted.
Both Meta and Amazon have donated $1 million to the inauguration while Musk played a major role in Trump’s campaign and is leading a new government project aimed at cutting spending and increasing efficiency.
2. Elite M.B.A. grads struggle to find jobs
The Wall Street Journal reports that, “Landing a professional job in the U.S. has become so tough that even Harvard Business School says its M.B.A.s can’t solely rely on the university’s name to open doors anymore.”
“Twenty-three percent of job-seeking Harvard M.B.A.s who graduated last spring were still looking for work three months after leaving campus. That share is up from 20% the prior year, during a cooling white-collar labor market; the figure was 10% in 2022, according to the school,” WSJ reported.
WSJ added, “More than a dozen top-tier M.B.A. programs, including those at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and New York University’s Stern School of Business, had worse job-placement outcomes last year than any other in recent memory.”
Magnolia Tribune
Special counsel who investigated Trump says in report his team ‘stood up for the rule of law’
